Inside Asian Gaming

IAG FEB 2020年2月 亞博匯 18 亞博匯早報 BREAKFAST BRIEFS STUDY INTO PROPOSED MACAU TOURIST TAX FINDS INDUSTRY GROUPS OPPOSED 澳門公佈旅客稅可行性研究，業界強烈反對 A FEASIBILITY Study into the possible introduction of a tourist tax for visitors to Macau has found strong opposition among industry groups, with around 80% of industry participants interviewed stating they do no support such a move. The Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) revealed initial results of the study, which was first announced in May 2019, in January with around 14,900 questionnaires collected from residents, visitors and representatives of Macau’s travel and tourism industries. The findings revealedoverwhelming support fromlocal residents with 95% supporting the idea. Of those, around 32% prefer a tax of between MOP$100 and MOP$199 while 22% suggested a tax of MOP$99 or lower. However, only 20% of respondents within the tourism industry expressed support, while 50.6% of visitors surveyed said a tax would affect their intention to visit Macau. Another 25.2%of visitors said any impact on their travel plans would depend on the actual situation. According to the MGTO, the Feasibility Study was conducted based on 11 improvement strategies proposed by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) to cope with over-tourism, and is aimed at providing findings that can serve as scientific grounds for formulation of governmental policies. 澳門 當局就一項關於可能對赴澳遊客徵收旅 遊稅的可行性研究發現，業界團體強烈反對， 約80%的受訪業界人士表示他們不支持此項 舉措。 澳門特區政府旅遊局在一月公佈了自 2019年5月宣佈的「徵收旅客稅可行性研究」的 結果，從居民、遊客及澳門旅遊業界代表人士 處共收集了約14900份調查問卷。 調查結果表明，絕大多數市民贊成開徵旅 客稅，佔比人數為95%。在贊成徵收旅客稅的 受訪市民，其中約有32.2%認為金額應在澳門 幣100-199元之間，其次有21.9%的人認為金 額應在澳門幣99元或以下。 但是，該項提議只獲得20％的旅遊業受訪 者支持，而50.6％的被調查遊客表示，徵稅會影 響他們前往澳門的意願。另外25.2％的遊客認 為將需視乎具體情況才能判斷是否對他們的 旅行計劃有影響。 旅遊局表示，此項可行性研究是根據世界 旅遊組織為應對過度旅遊而提出的11項改善 策略而進行的，旨在為政府制定政策提供科學 依據。